Today, I was perusing the Public Disclosure Commission website reports filed recently by the Whatcom County Republican Party PAC (“Whatcom Republicans”). I noticed there were two Expenditure reports filed that showed the Whatcom Republicans paid $358.08 on October 9, 2017, and $214.08 on October 27, 2017, to Meridian High School.

Those two dates seemed to correlate with two events I remembered which were: the October 5, 2017 “County-wide Candidate Forum,” and the October 19, 2017 “Wake-Up Whatcom County Rally!” both held at Meridian High School.

The October 5 “County-wide Candidate Forum,” was billed as a nonpartisan event, and was sponsored by 10 non-partisan organizations”: Common Threads Northwest, Whatcom Business Alliance, Citizens Alliance for Property Rights (CAPR), Whatcom County Association of REALTORS, Whatcom Family Farmers, Whatcom County Cattleman, Whatcom County Farm Bureau, Building Industry Association of Whatcom County (BIAWC), The Fourth Corner, and Associated General Contractors of Washington (AGC).

There was NO mention of the Whatcom Republicans organization in any of the advertising for the “non-partisan” candidate forum.

The October 19 “Wake-Up Whatcom County Rally!” was sponsored by Common Threads Northwest, KGMI 790 AM Radio, and The Fourth Corner. There were three featured speakers (Tim Eyman, Glen Morgan, and Lars Larson) advertised on the Facebook Event, created by Common Threads Northwest. The event was also referred to as the “Vote Now Rally,” on a Facebook Event created by The Fourth Corner, describing the three speakers as the “Conservative Threesome.”

There was NO mention of the Whatcom Republicans organization in any of the advertising for the rally.

So, today, I called Meridian High School to confirm if these two events held in October at the high school were paid for by the Whatcom Republicans as the PDC website filed reports indicate. Meridian High School staff confirmed that the Whatcom Republicans did, in fact, pay Meridian High School $358.08 for the October 5, 2017, “County-wide Candidate Forum,” and paid the school $214.08 for the October 19, 2017, “Wake-Up Whatcom County Rally!”

It’s already been established during this 2017 general election season that the two conservative candidates running for County Council, Mary Kay Robinson and Tyler Byrd, and the two conservative candidates running for Port of Bellingham Commission, Ken Bell and Dan Robbins, have all tried to hide their relationships and ties with the Whatcom Republicans.

Now, we can see that the Whatcom Republicans paid Meridian High School for the supposedly “non-partisan” October 5, candidate forum that was sponsored by the 10 supposedly “non-partisan” organizations, and that fact was not disclosed to the public in the advertising for the event. Also, not disclosed in advertising to the public, was the fact that the Whatcom Republicans paid Meridian High School for the “Wake-Up Whatcom Rally!” event.